Southwest Washington State more specifically the region where Skamania County is located has had a long and dark history unknown to most people From the earliest times Native people of the region spoke of beings that were said to inhabit the Mt St Helens region which ate men and the indigenous people could not be enticed to venture there One valley in particular that would have been idyllic for a place to erect a village was called Yacolt meaning Haunted Valley by native people which was feared and known to be a dwelling place of the cannibal giants